Hershey's Track and Field Meet

Posted: May 12, 2013 - 12:03am

Zach Gordon Youth Center hosted the 36th annual Hershey’s Track and Field Meet on April 28 at Thunder Mountain High School. Fifty-six of Juneau’s youth ages 9-14 participated in 30 different running events, the standing long jump and softball throw. Additionally, we had parents, younger siblings, and adult runners participate in our ‘all-comer’ events and add an incredibly fun and silly dimension to our races, relays, and water balloon toss!

Though the snow of late April seems like a distant memory after this past week of sun, I can assure you that our athletes and volunteers woke up to a snow-filled sky, and at least an inch of snow covering the entire track and field. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came out to participate despite the snow and hail. Additionally, moms, dads, aunties, and uncles, we know that this event cannot happen without your encouragement and willingness to trudge through the snow and get our athletes to the event, so thank you!

It goes without saying, that we could not have held such a safe, successful, and fun meet without the help of our volunteers! Scott May and his team of TMHS track and field athletes and parents have been essential in the execution of this meet for years, and this year, they got a bonus shoveling workout in as well. We would like to recognize and thank the following individuals:

The TMHS track and field head coach, Scott May, for his invaluable knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm in seeing to it that everything ran as smoothly as possible. Our gratitude is also extended to these TMHS track and field assistant coaches, athletes and family members who also proficiently aided with various event supervision duties throughout the afternoon: Ethan Kramp, James Steeves, Brendan Pietz, Ashlynn Kay, Nick Bursell, Emilyanne Lohrey, Khalil English, Sammy Haight, Estie Dawson, Obadiah Dawson, Katie Jones, Maddie Hall, Bradley Peterson, Alex Souza, Nathan and Karilee Pietz, Glenn Frick and Kyle Fagerstrom. Finally we’d like to thank Mimi Mesdag for securing the use of the track facility and football field for our meet.

For more information on Zach Gordon Youth Center’s annual Hershey’s meet, upcoming events, or our summer camps for youth, call us at 586-2635 after 11am or visit our website at Juneau.org/parkrec/youthcenter.